Arafura Harbour

Dear Editor,

Paul O’Brien (NT News Letters to the Editor 10th April, 2009) is unhappy that $4 million of taxpayer’s money was wasted on a mud crab farm on some of the land where the Arafura Harbour development would be located. So am I. Paul also mentions the previous prawn farm on the same site, no doubt another disaster for the taxpayer.

Surely then the development of the Gwala Daraniki land (Kulaluk) is the best way to avoid any more taxpayer’s funds being wasted on poorly managed “pie-in-the-sky” Aboriginal schemes.

Kulaluk and the surrounding land is an eyesore. The proper development of this low-lying area will be of huge benefit to all the citizens of Darwin. Currently the Kulaluk land only benefits the few people who live there.

The Arafura Harbour project is as Dave Tollner describes – “Visionary”. As I see it everyone in Darwin, including the residents of Kulaluk will be more than pleased when this project is completed.

If however the Arafura Harbour project does not go ahead, it is very likely that the taxpayer will continue to waste even more money on this Aboriginal community and even more failed “business-projects”.

The only problem I have with the project is the proposed channel and lock system which would cut across East Point Road near the Aero Modellers Club. I would not like to see the picturesque beauty of the Fannie Bay side of East Point “altered” in any way.

And no, I am not a mangrove expert either, but I do remember Cullen Bay when the mud flats and mangroves were there.

Enough said?

Dave Wane

Woodleigh Gardens